Boult and Southee rock England in second Test

LEEDS: Trent Boult and Tim Southee led a New Zealand recovery after Adam Lyth scored his maiden Test century and Alastair Cook became England´s all-time leading Test run-scorer at Headingley on Saturday.

England were cruising on the second day of the second Test while left-handed openers Lyth (107) and skipper Cook (75) were sharing a first-wicket stand of 177.

But the departure of Lyth, needlessly run out shortly before the advent of the new ball, sparked a slump that saw four wickets fall late in the day.

At stumps, England were 253 for five in reply to New Zealand´s first innings 350, a deficit of 97 runs.

The new ball saw left-armer Boult take two wickets for 10 runs in four overs and Southee one for seven, also in four overs.

Lyth, 27, was Cook´s sixth opening partner since the retirement of former captain Andrew Strauss, with Nick Compton, Joe Root, Michael Carberry, Sam Robson and Jonathan Trott all given a chance in the problem position.

However, Lyth went some way to making the berth his own ahead of the Ashes series starting in July.

Saturday saw England´s first century opening stand in a home Test since Cook and Strauss added 186 against India at Edgbaston on 2011.

Lyth had managed just seven and 12 on debut during England´s 124-run win in the first of this two-Test series at Lord´s.

But he was far more assured back in familiar surroundings, although he did have several ´nervous nineties´ moments.

On 90, he almost played on to Southee, kicking fresh air, as he tried to boot the ball away from danger. In fact, the ball hit the stumps but didn´t dislodge either bail.

Lyth was on 94 when his drive against off-spinner Mark Craig appeared destined for mid-on.

But substitute fielder Neil Wagner went the wrong way as the ball flew past him for a four that took Lyth to 98.

Two balls later, Lyth had his century when a slog-swept boundary off Craig saw him completed a 188-ball hundred, including 14 fours.

Earlier, Cook overtook Gooch´s previous England record of 8,900 Test runs when he square-drove Southee for four that gave him the score of 32 he needed to surpass his mentor´s mark.

The economical Craig removed Cook, although it needed a New Zealand review to have the skipper lbw after he missed an intended sweep.
Cook batted for nearly four hours and faced 187 balls including a dozen boundaries.

He walked off having moved up to 12th place in the all-time list of leading Test run-scorers with 8,944 runs in 114 matches and 203 innings, at an average of 46.82, with 27 hundreds and 41 fifties.